Turquoise Vintage-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Ayan Series

Ayan comes from the Turkish ayan beyan — out in the open, impossible to miss — which is a plain name for the top of the house range. Turquoise Vintage-Pattern Handwoven Wool Rug, Ayan Series, 150 × 194 cm (4'11" × 6'4"), hand-knotted in wool over cotton in Pakistan, and the smallest size the collection is woven in. Turquoise is a difficult color to hold across a large floor and an easy one to hold across this much of it.

01Color, by the light

The vintage drawing takes the intensity out of the ground, so the color arrives already settled rather than arriving new and needing a decade to calm down. Against cream walls it reads green; against gray it goes decisively blue, and the same rug will look like two colors depending on which wall it is nearest.

02What the yarn is

Small pieces are where a strong color is safe, which is part of why the series is woven at this size at all. Wool pile, cotton foundation, and the Gördes knot throughout — the symmetrical knot that anchors both ends of the yarn around a pair of warps.

03The mark of slow weaving

One weaver, one set of dye lots, one drawing, and no piece in this collection is rewoven once it has sold. At just under three square meters it lands at a bed end, along a bookcase wall, or on the quiet half of an entrance.

04After the color

Professional washing, and not often. Hand-knotted in Pakistan; wool pile, cotton warp and weft. Turquoise ground with a softened vintage drawing. 150 × 194 cm (4'11" × 6'4") — the smallest size in the Ayan range. Reads green beside cream, blue beside gray. Tied on the Gördes knot, which anchors both ends of the yarn. One design, woven once, and not repeated after it sells. Suits a bed end, a bookcase wall, or a quiet part of an entrance. Professional washing, infrequently. Strong colors are safest in small quantities, and three square meters is the amount of turquoise most houses turn out to want.